Playback Designs vs. Berkeley

Mr.Tinn

“The Metric is a good pro-audio dac. It certainly does not compare to our products, nor is it meant to. You should really find a way to listen to it.”

The Metric Halo ULN-8/LIO-8 are great DACs and can compare to best audiophile units.

I’m interested in hirez PCM playback from a PC or NAS without the use of a soundcard or converter, so there’s no reason for me to find a way to listen to the Playback Designs units.

I hold no ill will toward you. I understand that you’re a dealer/distributor promoting his products. I’m not interested in any of the products that you sell, so there’s no need for us to communicate off line.

Good luck with your new DAC.

Aloha,

Kana813: Thank you.

I've heard and used the MH converters a number of times doing location recording. It's a great, but it doesn't hold a candle to the PD or even the Grimm, AX24 or even the Meitners.

Crna39-

If you've compared the MH UNL-8/LIO-8 to the PD MPD-5, what
was system?

Most audiophiles that are using the MH UNL-8/LIO-8 as a DAC/preamp are feeding it via firewire from a Mac using Amarra playback software.

I switched from Berkeley to PD MPS-5 earlier this year. First, I think Berkeley is an excellent unit and for the price, it is hard to beat and it was significantly better than my old DAC Esoteric D-05. Also, I supposed I never used it to its full potential as I am using ASR integrated amp so I never tried it connecting directly to amplifier which is supposed to be the best way to connect Berkeley.
However, in my system, PD improves upon Berkeley strenght in just about everyway. Berkeley weakness my system was its bass' tendency to be on the fat slow side. PD was much better in that respect. PD has as nice rich sounding mid range, a tad more forward than Berkeley but offer better detail and imaging and more open top. Berkeley sounds a bit darker in this respect. I can't tell if value wise it is worth 3x the price but adding a good transport and SACD capability, I consider it a good buy. I listen to my digital music mostly through a computer music server so the comment between Berkeley and PD was through the same server.

Jonathan, I wonder if you can elaborate the upcoming USB upgrade a bit more. I am in the process of auditioning Weiss INT202 to compare to my Lynx AES 16 card but it seems like I should wait to see what's going on with PD USB first.